St. Louis City aldermen are seeking to hold a public hearing into the award of a $7 million parking meter contract.
A hearing into how the contract was awarded may be heard early next year, according to Alderman Jeffrey Boyd (D-22), a persistent and long time critic of City Treasurer Tishaura Jones, who signed off on the award to Hudson and Associates.
Alderman Jack Coater (D-7) has filed notice that he wants a hearing, including on how the Parking Commission voted and why the contract was signed in April, and monies paid out, at a time when there was no parking enforcement in the city due to COVID-19.
This follows a St. Louis Circuit Court ruling that found in favor of Jones, stating that she did not violate city ordinance when signing the three-year contract with the company, which is headed by one of the treasurer's key financial supporters Sheila Hudson, according to various reports by the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
The court ruled that plaintiffs in the case failed to demonstrate that "the underwriter, garage equipment and parking enforcement and management service contracts violate" the city ordinance, according to the ruling.
"We always thought the treasurer had complied with all the laws and she had a good process for awarding contracts in her office," Jones' attorney, Charles Hatfield, said, according to the Post Dispatch. "We're glad the court agreed."
In total, the annual income from parking, including meters and garages, is approximately $18 million, while meters bring in some $8 million. Revenue is expected to drop sharply this year.
Boyd, who unsuccessfully stood against Jones in August's Democratic primary, was one of the plaintiffs in the case against the treasurer, and in other legal actions that are still ongoing.
His overarching aim is to wrest control of the revenue and move it from the treasurer's office to the municipality.
"That is what happens in every other city in the country," Boyd told the St. Louis Record.
On the parking meter contract, Boyd argues: "There is a legal contract, but the way she went about doing it was not so legal."
The alderman said the latest court ruling over parking meters left him confused as he believed there was contradictory messages coming out of the circuit court, with the judge first saying he would not hear the case and then handing down a judgment.
On the award of the contract right at the beginning of the COVID-19 turmoil, Boyd said: "What puzzles me is why the treasurer would pay people to stay at home and collect on the parking meters.
"She signed off on a $7 million contract as if there was no Covid."
City Counselor Julian Bush, in a legal opinion in late May, said the contract was invalid as it was not in the budget for fiscal year ending June 30.
"I don't find an appropriation authorizing the expenditures called for by this purported contract," Bush wrote.